Is Albert Pujols a jerk?

I wonder if Pujols mingled with fans when he attended Glenn Beck's Come to Jesus revival in DC

 

I was a 21-year old intern for a suburban daily when I went to interview Albert Pujols for a feature.

I went up to him before the game and politely asked if I could have a minute of his time for a story. He grumbled something under his breath that nobody on this Earth could've heard. I said "huh?" quietly and got no response. So I stood there for a second. He looked up at me and barked "I said in a minute!"

I stepped away, and stood about 10 feet from his locker while he examined about 7-8 different bats. He spent about 10 minutes looking through his bats, inspecting them, doing whatever he does to get his weapons ready. Then he pointed at me and said "OK."

I asked him about 6 questions and it went fine. He then went 4-for-5 and was in a really good mood to talk after the game.

That was 2002, his second year in baseball.

I wouldn't say he was exactly mean, just a little surly, and I've heard a lot of writers say the same thing about him over the years. I imagine that's especially true before games. Just watching him inspect his bats, you could tell even when he was 22 that he took the game very seriously and focused 100 percent on the game ahead of him that day.

I never took offense to him acting a little cold. It was almost cool to see a baseball superstar zoned in so obsessively two hours before a game.

I haven't covered a lot of baseball, but I've been in the clubhouse several times before games and I've never seen anybody just refusing to relax in pregame like Albert.

Of course, that was 9 years and $100 million ago, so I'm sure he hasn't gotten any better.

 

Well yeah, but who wants to buy a squiggle?

 

But is he the most hated man in his sport?

I won't believe any of this until Reilly puts it in an envelope and fires it off to ESPN from Denver.

 

And who's to say, in this computer age, they can write any better? signing their contract and autographs are probably the only time they actually pick up a pen. I am guessing there are some who probably can't hand write the alphabet legibly.

 

I covered a club where they had a seminar in spring training that emphasized the importance of saying hello to fans or waving or somehow acknowledging them, even if there wasn't time to sign an autograph.

To the OP father's belief that the players were all business at the field? Some of them are on the bench during games, having clubhouse kids run their phone numbers up to slutty-looking women in tight clothes. Their focus can be interrupted.

 

Well, no. Albert gets paid because he's the best hitter on the planet right now. Simple as that.

And I don't remember anyone ever saying Albert is a gregarious guy. This was just another hatchet job by Pearlman, who always seems miserable based on his writing.

As a father of a young man with Down syndrome (and I know Pearlman doesn't think this should count), I'm much more interested that he recently built a wellness center for adults with Down syndrome.

http://www.stlukes-stl.com/services/wellness_center/

But he's a "jerk" because he doesn't like to sign autographs and he's sometimes gruff with reporters? Please.

 

I find autograph seekers to be creepy. If you're not getting the autograph to sell, what's the point? "Oh look, there's his signature." I make an exception for book-signings because they're actual writers and might write something clever or meaningful along with their signature.

My sense on Pearlman is that he doesn't really enjoy sports all that much, and I may have seen him admit that at some point. He's a great writer stylistically and I enjoy the way he puts his opinions out there and is willing to interact with people who disagree with him. I'm pretty "meh" about his Pujols take, though. I will say that it takes more effort to skillfully craft a post like that than another slobberfest about what a great player Pujols is. Tell us something we don't already know. I feel like Pearlman did that here, whether you agree with his take or not.

 

^^ this. When teams start putting into contracts that you have to be a "good guy", whatever the hell that is, to collect your money, it matters. until then, he gets paid for playing baseball. Just like Barry Bonds adn th elike.

 

Pull that shit in your jobs, fellas -- acting like a turd in any public interaction while doing your duties well -- and see how that works out for you.

And no, I don't just mean that you'll get fired and Pujols won't, so what the hell. I mean, your reputation will go to shit too.

Hitting a baseball, far and often, is no excuse for not being a good citizen and ambassador of the game. Fellows like Cal Ripken, Ernie Banks, Kirby Puckett and a thousand more made the fans feel closer to the game, which helped its growth. Pujols acts like it sprang up, invented for him, at $30M per annum.

 

Pujols is only a jerk if he doesn't re-sign with the Cardinals.

And if he were to sign with the Cubs, that would make him Beelzebub.

 

Does my job involve being asked to sign autographs for grown men? It's one thing if Pujols starts spitting at crippled people and kicking babies. It appears that he's simply cold to creepy autograph seekers. I look forward to the Cardinals explaining to their fans that they decided to trade one of the 10 greatest players of all-time because they didn't like his attitude during autograph sessions.

Sports fans who don't want to root for players who aren't necessarily nice people shouldn't complain when their team doesn't win a championship for a while. From what I've learned over the past decade or so, almost all of the all-time greats in sports were complete assholes in real-life interactions. Every time I think there's an exception, I talk to somebody who had to deal with that guy and told me, "Oh no, that guy was a raging asshole and yelled at everybody on the set."

People who rise to the top of any profession would seem to almost always be raging egomaniacs who believe they're better than anyone else. Whether there's a connection between that attitude and their success is open for debate, but I don't think it's a coincidence.